Grand Challenge 5 and what we need to do

This term I took a class called Frontiers. I found the class to be very interesting and meaningful. We talked about people who took the first steps into unknown territories and about the unknown territories themselves. While we discussed places that might as well have been light years away such as the Mariana trench we also discussed places in our own backyards such as the Chicago river. While the Chicago river is not really a frontier it is a sort of haven in a big city that has been largely unkempt and untouched. Fortunately we were able to talk to some people trying to change that. During this class we were luckily enough to attend multiple FEs with different guests over zoom. While it was not the same as a face to face conversation we learned a lot about what people are doing on the front lines. For this AP, the only one in the term for this class, we had to look into a Grand Challenge decided by the frontiers in marine science and write a literature review about it. Mine is below and I hope you enjoy.

Dylan Smith

Aaron Moring-D’angier

Frontiers

6/4/2020

Grand Challenge 5 and what we need to do


In this paper I will be talking about Grand Challenge 5 set by the Frontiers in Marine Science. This 

will include opinions from multiple sources regarding different issues pertaining to this challenge.We 

will be talking about the different problems ravaging the oceans and the different solutions being 

tested. 

      Grand Challenge 5: Delivering Ecosystem Services by Conserving and Protecting Our Seas has 

many causes. The main one being lack of biodiversity which is caused by over fishing and 

destruction of ocean life habitats. According to Jan Lehmköster “Biological diversity is probably 

declining more rapidly than ever before in the history of the Earth.” (2010). Over fishing is prevalent 

in all parts of the world and is arguably the main cause of the lack of biodiversity we see in the 

oceans. As said by Michele Kuruc “When too many fish are taken out of the ocean it creates an 

imbalance that can erode the food web and lead to a loss of other important marine life, including 

vulnerable species like sea turtles and corals.”. (2020)

   
      The outcomes of loss of biodiversity, over fishing, and destruction of ocean life habitat have been 

tremendous. The effects have changed the ocean in ways that are either irreversible or close to it. 

Fish have been stunted from growing, species have been eliminated, reefs have been obliterated and 

ecosystems have been altered forever. To get a better idea of what we have cause we can look at 

what happens when we create a Marine Protected Area which is essentially an ocean safe haven 

which allows ecosystems to thrive the way they were supposed to to begin with. 

“Habitat Destruction.” Ocean Health Index, www.oceanhealthindex.org/methodology/components/habitat-destruction-intertidal.

      As told by the Ocean Health Index “Established in 1986, Leam Markham is a 235-acre 

community-managed mangrove forest and sea grass conservation zone in the Trang Province in 

Thailand. Years of collaboration between local conservationists, economists, scientists, grassroots 

activists, students and citizens have protected mangrove forests from logging, development and 

destruction for aquaculture, and seagrass beds from damage by trawling, dynamite fishing and 

pushnets. Leam Markham’s success has led to the introduction of an additional 10 community 

mangrove forests in the area, where inter-village committees are responsible for overseeing the sites 

and providing management for local resources.” (2020). This was a massive success and proved that 

what has been going on is what is killing the ocean and its ecosystems. Fortunately according to 

Karen and Ian Stewart “In 1985 there were only about 430 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Today 

there are more than 15,600 covering more than 9.7 million square miles (25 million square 

kilometers), or nearly 7 percent of the Earth’s oceans, according to the latest figures from the U.N.’s 

Protected Planet data repository.” (2019) While this is massive progress in the right direction we 

need to step up our progress because saving 7 percent of the ocean is not a success and will not save 

it from what we are doing.

      Figuring out what fish are more vulnerable to over fishing and habitat destruction is very 

important because without being able to target certain species to save first we wont be able to save 

the maximum of ecosystems as possible. For example according to Michele Kuruc “Decades of 

destructive fishing has resulted in the precipitous decline of key fish stocks such as bluefin tuna and 

Grand Banks cod, as well as collateral impacts to other marine life. Hundreds of thousands of marine 

mammals, seabirds, and sea turtles are captured each year, alongside tens of millions of sharks. 

Many of these species are endangered and protected, while some such as the vaquita, Eastern Pacific 

leatherback turtle, and Maui dolphin are on the brink of extinction.” (2020) Knowing how these 

systems work is key to saving them. While I am not saying we shouldn't save all the fish, knowing 

which ones to target first will allow us to save more than we would if we attacked the whole problem 

at once.

      The future of ocean health is looking up. One because of the Marine Protected Areas which are 

allowing fish to not only thrive in that area but also because fish that live healthy lives in the 

protected areas can also travel out into the open water where they can help fill in the loss of other 

fish in that area. Along with these protected areas you also have people who live off of fish 

becoming more vocal. “WWF supports the creation and management of well-designed marine 

protected areas around the world, protecting important fish species from the Arctic to the tropics. 

Community managed areas, often based on traditional knowledge and customary practices, benefit 

people in places where fishing is such an important part of livelihoods of coastal communities.” 

(Michele Kuruc, 2020) These people have paired with organizations such as the WWF to help them 

survive and also to keep the fish safe. This is a win-win because there are so many fishing 

communities that need this sort of help and they are also on such a small scale of fishing that they are 

safe for the aquatic ecosystems. While there is a lot of hope the the oceans ecosystems there is also a 

lot we need to work on. As said by Karen and Ian Stewart “not all MPAs are created equal. Studies 

have found that the best MPAs are those that have no fishing zones that are well enforced, they are 

more than 10 years old and are relatively large in area, and they are isolated from fished areas.” 

(2019). This is essentially saying that we need to be careful and thoughtful about where we are 

putting out Marine Protected Areas because while they are useful and have made a huge difference 

we need to make sure we are utilizing them to our fullest.